Source: http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=171474The Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) was introduced by the former Minister of Education, Dr. Sam Egwu last year, to replace the Universities Matriculation Examination (UME) and the Monotechnics, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education Matriculation Examination (MPCE).
The introduction has so far generated mixed reactions. Some commended JAMB for it, as it will increase students' access to tertiary education, improve the quality of intakes into polytechnics and colleges of education, as well as increase competition among students, given the fact that they would have gone through the same admission process.
Others said a major challenge could be that majority of the admission seekers might opt for universities as their first choices. Other critics predicted logistics problems, saying that the large number of applicants would overwhelm the examination body, while examination malpractice would prevail.
However, last Saturday's conduct of the examination, monitored by THISDAY in Lagos, Abuja and Kaduna, showed minimal occurrences of examination malpractice, due to additional security measures. A total of 16, 000 officers and men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), 531 Independent Examination Watch Groups and 684 staff from other parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Education were mobilised to monitor and supervise the examination.
The parastatals were the National Examinations Council (NECO), National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB), National Teachers' Institute (NTI) and Teachers' Registration Council (TRCN).
A total of 1, 375, 642 candidates registered for the examination. One hundred and fifty-two of them are visually impaired, 85 are inmates of Kaduna Prison and 36 from Ikoyi Prison.
The examination held simultaneously in a total of 2, 705 centres in 321 examination towns in Nigeria and six in other countries - Accra, Ghana; Buea, Cameroon; Cotonou, Benin Republic; London, United Kingdom; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and Johannesburg, South Africa.
According to the Registrar, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, the figure is 149, 696 lower than that of last year since 1,182, 381 registered for the Universities Matriculation Examination (UME) and 342, 957 registered for the Monotechnics, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education (MPCE) examination, giving a total of 1,525, 338 last year; and this year's UTME is a combination of the two. Each candidate had two universities, polytechnics and colleges of education to choose from.
Bukola Olatunji, Paul Obi and Chineme Okafor monitored the examination in Abuja; Reuben Buhari in Kaduna, as well Uche Nnaike and Funmi Ogundare in Lagos. The results were basically the same. With two hand-held scanners and detectors per centre and the distribution of writing materials to ensure that candidates did not enter the examination halls with anything other their examination slips, cheating was reduced to the barest minimum.
The materials provided included calculators, pencils, erasers and sharpeners, which the candidates took away after the examination. Ojerinde explained that these came at the rate of N200 per candidate, which was deducted for the money paid for registration.
Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa'i, who monitored the examination in Abuja, expressed satisfaction with its peaceful conduct. So did the Permanent Secretary, Prof. Oladapo Afolabi, who monitored it in Lagos, as well as Ojerinde, Chairman of his board, Prof.
The Minister however frowned at the sitting arrangement at the Government Secondary School Garki centre. “I just directed that students that are not comfortable in their seats should be given another. To do well in any examination, environment is a key factor, you have to be comfortable to able to think well. In that case, we have directed that the sitting arrangement in all the centres should be comfortable”, she said.
A suspected impersonator, who identified himself as David Jaja and pretended to be monitoring the exercise, was arrested by men of the Civil Defence Corps at the Government Secondary School, Garki. There were also a few hitches about candidates who came without their identification slips.
At Army Day Secondary School, Mogadishu Cantonment, Abuja, the examination started at about 9.00 am, candidates were divided into three halls. The story was not different at Government Secondary School, Karu. One of the invigilators who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “the new measure of introducing manual calculators to the candidates is to avoid a situation where candidates will troop into the examination halls with sophisticated materials in the name of calculators only to turn around and engage in malpractice has been curtailed.”.
Candidates at some of the centres in Maitama and Garki peddled a rumour that JAMB had pegged the cut-off point for university admission at 280, as to generate students for the polytechnics and colleges of education, but a JAMB official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to THISDAY, according to them, such rumour was uncalled for, as JAMB had not made any public pronouncement to that effect.
In Kaduna, 30 inmates were among those who sat for the examination. They were taken to the Borstal Training Institute (BTI) located at Barnawa, within Kaduna metropolis at about 7:30 am to write the examination.
THISDAY learnt that the inmates were those due to be discharged or pardoned and were being rehabilitated at the institute. They started reading for the examination since they were allowed to register.
THISDAY was denied access to the examination room, but gathered that the prisoners were not dressed in their prison uniform while writing the exams in company of other youths from different areas within the state.
A junior prison officer who was at the centre said on condition of anonymity that “of course, the inmates will be allowed to go to school, should they secure admission since they have already shown signs that they are ready to be integrated into the society.”
Asked who would be responsible for their fees, he said, “some of them have parents who are going to take care of their education. Those who do not have would be at the mercy of NGOs and good spirited individuals”, adding that the state Comptroller of Prison, Abubakar Ashafa would be in a better position to comment.
Despite the early morning down pour in Lagos State, candidates started arriving at their examination centres as early as 7.30 am, but they were not allowed into the centres until around 8.30 am. The atmosphere was calm at the centres and the examination conducted in an orderly manner.
At Tolu Schools Complex, Ajegunle, candidates were not allowed into the schools with their mobile phones and writing materials. Pencils and biros littered the floor; some candidates went back home to keep their phones, while others kept theirs with friends who lived nearby.
At Randle Secondary School, Apapa, candidates complained of typographical errors on their answer sheets. The last letter of most candidates' registration number did not correspond with the one on their answer sheet, but they were told to write the correct number on top of the box.
At Agidingbi Grammar School, Ikeja, an official of the Board, Miss Nike Ogunjimi said the use of scanners and the provision of writing materials helped to eliminate all forms of examination malpractice and also made the examination orderly.
According to her, candidates were not allowed to leave the school gate once they got in, unlike in the past when some would leave the school premises under the pretext of going to buy writing materials.
However, the names of candidates that were supposed to write their examination at Amuwo Odofin Senior and Junior High Schools, Mile II, were moved three days prior to the examination to Imoye Senior and Junior High School, Mile II, and other schools in Festac Town and Maza-maza, Lagos as a result of the ongoing rehabilitation of the school. Candidates who did not have prior knowledge of the arrangement complained that they lived far away from the centre so they did not know about the changes. This made them to search frantically for their centres in the morning of the examination.
Screening of candidates with metal scanners was also conducted by men of the Nigerian Security and Defence Corps before they were allowed into the premises and told to drop their phones in a cartoon at the gate if they had any on them.
Examination started around10.15 and those that arrived at the centre one hour after the exams had commenced, were shut out. Students complained that the registration alphabets did not correspond with those on their answer sheets, but were advised not to alter anything on the paper.
Principal of Amuwo Odofin Senior High School, Mrs. Omotunde Lawson said, "JAMB seems to have gotten over the problems of wrong answers sheets and there are new measures against examination malpractices. The conduct of the exam was okay, there were no acts of hooliganism and no disturbance. I cannot also say money has exchanged hands in this centre."
An official of JAMB, Mr. Idris Ogunleye said some of the candidates who were scanned at the gate, but still smuggled their mobile phones into the examination hall had committed violated the Malpractice Code I and would be penalised for it.
One of the late comers who said he had attempted the examination five times, pleaded with the officials to allow him and his group have theirs in a private room, offered to bribe them, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.
A candidate, Mr. John Anthony, who said it was his third attempt, noted that the UTME was in every wise better than the others. Even the questions, he said, were not so difficult, probably because he prepared well. He commended JAMB for providing writing materials, but said the calculator he was given did not function properly.
The successful conduct of the examination began with the successful registration of the almost 1.4 million candidates and this has been attributed to a member of the 'Converged Examination Management Technology Platform (CEMPT) consortium, charged with this.
This registration portal, according to observers, showcased the uniqueness and focus of the newly introduced UTME registration process. It also possessed a simplistic outlook which highlighted its user friendliness.
The question that arises from the UTME however is: Will admission seekers now write six Post Matriculation Examinations, organised by the different institutions to further test their candidates?
The Minister said the test would remain for now, but be standardised. “The issue of Post UME is something that we are looking at seriously. What we are planning to do is to ensure its uniformity; standardising it in a way that someone who sits for an examination in any institution in the country can use it for admission in another institution.
Ojerinde, who has never supported the test said, if the UTME was considered credible, then, taking candidates through another written text by individual institutions and charging exorbitantly for such examinations only amounted to duplication of exercise and redundancy.
He urged parents, who initially called for such exercise to persuade government to see the dimension that the entire process was taking. “If the UTME is credible, well, it seems to me that the Post-UME may be tautological and redundant but as at now, government says there must be a screening. So, we are still complying with the screening exercise.
“However, the problem now is that we have six institutions of choice for each candidate, are the candidates going to go through the six institutions for screening before they can be given admission. That is the point we are talking about but the minister said the process of standardising it is in the offing. Again, what are we standardising, when shall we do the Post-UTME screening, what will it constitute, who will do it and how shall we do it? All these things are ways of standardising it. Concerning when the examination should hold, I think we should do it all over the nation the same day and since the minister had said that the screening done in one university should be tenable in another, it means that if we do it the same day, the screening is normal, then the result can be used in any of the institutions across the country.”
According to him, “we have made the mistake of bringing in post-UME and nobody can wake up to stop it until everybody is convinced that the job going on in JAMB is okay. As far as I am concerned, I am pleased with what I am doing. Government has given a rule that no school should charge more than a N1, 000, but some schools go ahead to charge (more). But the Minister has a plan, which I believe can change the whole situation.”
